As the IBM leadership watches Apple's continuing self-transformation into
thin, lumpy applesauce, the Blue Barons must also worry about the future of
another troubled venture, the PowerPC microprocessor.
  So far, IBM's use of the PowerPC has been limited to lower-end workstations
that can be sold on the basis of a low price point and compatibility with
the rest of the RS/6000 product line.
  No one talks seriously any more about earlier dreams that the PowerPC
would be an Intel-blocker and a major factor in IBM's overall plans for
scalability from the desktop to the teraflop.
  Apple is by far the most conspicuous user of the PowerPC. Its new PowerPC
products have, despite all of Apple's other troubles, been a considerable
success.
  One of the many problems of the PowerPC is that too few other vendors have
followed Apple's lead (and IBM's heartfelt urging).
  Lower-end SMP (shared memory) multiprocessor servers are an obvious option
for the PowerPC that IBM itself has, so far, chosen not to exercise. After
all, Intel has done quite well indeed selling Pentiums, and now the Pentium
Pro, into this swiftly-growing market.

ESCALA
  Thus it is interesting to discover that yet another troubled venture, Bull
S.A., the injury-prone French national champion in the worldwide computer
Olympics, has developed a line of Power-PC-based SMP servers named Escala.
  (This is a much more graceful word than "scalable." To someone like this
reporter who perceives words in vivid visual terms, scalable implies the
process required to prepare a fish for the frying-pan -- or a mountain that
is not too difficult to climb.)
  Bull reports sales of about 4,000 Escala machines, most of them in
two or four-processor configurations -- which appears to be the modal sale in
the low-end SMP trade.
  Escala systems, available in deskside and rack-mounted options, may be
expanded from two up to eight processors. They are aimed at the commercial
sector. Configurations include transaction servers, database servers, and
system management servers.
  Current chip options include the PowerPC 601 and 604. Features adhere to
current fashion, with reliability measures, hefty I/O, versatile network
connectivity, and a one MB off-chip L2 cache. Prices are said to be very
competitive.
  Each drawer in the rack-mounted version can accommodate from one to eight
processors. Up to four of these multiprocessor nodes may be clustered
together.

WAITING FOR THE 620
  Bull's chief problem is performance -- the 601 and 604 are not very
muscular chips, especially in floating-point capabilities.
  The much more powerful 620 version of the PowerPC -- actually a total
redesign -- is to become available later this year after a number of delays.
  Bull reportedly plans to introduce single-processor Escala implementations
of the 620 during the final quarter of 1995. Low-end multiprocessor versions
are to follow in the first quarter of 1997. Eight-processor systems are to be
available in the second quarter of 1997.
  Meanwhile, Bull anticipates a 40 percent growth in its Unix business during
1996.
  An aggressively-priced, well-configured SMP line based on the PowerPC 620
could be very competitive in Europe. With proper marketing, U.S. customers
might also take an interest.
  While Bull is waiting for the 620, however, Intel will have a long year to
flood markets around the world with inexpensive multiprocessor boards based
on the Pentium Pro. When Bull's 620 product line becomes available, it is
likely to find that Intel has already staked out an intimidating slice of the
market.

"TRIED IT ONCE, DIDN'T LIKE IT"
  Rumors occasionally mention IBM as a possible buyer of Apple. If this is
being contemplated seriously, IBMers will no doubt recall their
not-very-encouraging experience with Bull.
  Like Apple, Bull's history has been a series of fumbled opportunities,
high costs, and wrong-footed strategic decisions. Unlike Apple, however, Bull
is essentially a ward of the French government.
  Successive French administrations have longed to thrust Bull out of the
national nest through privatization. A succession of efforts, often involving
new infusions of government funds, have been mounted in the hope that after
one last bail-out Bull would be able to stand on its own feet.
  Over the years, at the expense of bruised national pride, the French
authorities have accepted partnerships with IBM and NEC that also brought in
much-needed investment.
  NEC was a logical partner because, back in the mainframe era, Bull and NEC
both based their systems on Honeywell origins. Bull appealed to IBM as a
licensee that could improve IBM's access to the protected French market.
  Hence Bull's use of the PowerPC and AIX, IBM's version of Unix.
  Meanwhile, Bull, Air France, Renault, and other less prominent French
companies dependent on the government will be perched on the edge of
candidacy for privatization.
  France's labor unions and nostalgia for the tradition of the omnipotent,
all-knowing state could continue to delay implementation of hopes that these
companies can be severed from the national umbilical cord.
  With products like the Escala, Bull may be able to escalate itself into
viability, but the odds are not very good. This will be especially true if
Europe's economic outlook continues to dwindle into a significant slowdown.
  Meanwhile, it is unlikely that the accountants in Armonk are very
enthusiastic about the returns on IBM's investment in Bull. If their voices
are heard in the Blue Heaven of the IBM inner circle, they may well be
arguing against taking on yet another sickly vendor.

----------------------------
Norris Parker Smith  is a journalist who specializes in
HPC and high bandwidth communications. Reader comments are welcome.